"Buona fortuna, Padron Cesare!" cried one of the officers of the watch. cried one of the officers of the watch.

Ezio watched his archenemy ride off into the night. That was a flying visit, That was a flying visit, he thought to himself. he thought to himself. And no chance to kill him at all. Niccol will be very disappointed. And no chance to kill him at all. Niccol will be very disappointed.

TWENTY-FOUR.

Ezio turned his attention back to the task at hand. To find Caterina. High up on the western side of the Castel he noticed a small window, set deep in the wall, from which a faint light came. He made his way to it. When he reached it, he saw that there was no sill on which he could rest, but instead there was a narrow transom projecting above the window, which he could cling to securely with one hand.

He looked into the room. It was empty, though a torch burned on one wall. It looked like a guardroom, though, so Ezio hoped he was on the right track.

Farther along on the same level there was another, similar window. Ezio made his way to it and peered through the bars, though there seemed no reason for bars. No one slim enough to escape through this window would be able to climb down a good 150 feet to the ground, and then make it across the open ground to the river and possible safety. The light was dimmer here, but Ezio could see immediately that it was a cell.

Then he drew in his breath sharply. There, still in chains, was Caterina! She sat on a rough bench against one wall, but Ezio could not see if she was also chained to it. Her head was down, and Ezio did not know if she was awake or asleep.

Whatever the case, she raised her head at a thunderous hammering on the door.

"Open up!" Ezio heard Lucrezia cry.

One of the two guards outside the door, who had both been dozing, hastened to obey. "Yes, Altezza! Altezza! At once, At once, Altezza Altezza."

Once inside the cell, and followed by one of the guards, Lucrezia wasted no time at all. From the conversation Ezio had already heard, he could guess the reason for her fury: jealousy. Lucrezia believed that Caterina and Cesare had become lovers. He could not believe that to be true. The thought of Caterina being defiled by such a monster of depravity was something his mind refused to accept.

Lucrezia rushed across the cell and pulled Caterina to her feet by her hair, bringing her face close to her prisoner's. "You bitch! How was your journey from Forl to Rome? Did you ride in Cesare's private carriage? What did you get up to?"

Caterina looked her in the eye. "You're pathetic, Lucrezia. Even more pathetic if you think I'd live by the same standards as you."

Enraged, Lucrezia threw her to the floor. "What did he talk about? His plans for Naples?" She paused. "Did you...enjoy it?"

Wiping blood from her face, Caterina said: "I really can't remember."

Her quiet insolence drove Lucrezia into a blind fury. Pushing the guard aside, she seized an iron bar used for slatting across the door and brought it down heavily across Caterina's back. "Perhaps you will remember this! this!"

Now, Caterina screamed in intense pain. Lucrezia stood back, satisfied.

"Good. That's put you in your place at last!"

She threw the iron rod onto the floor and strode out of the cell. The guard followed her and the door slammed shut. Ezio noticed that there was a grille set into it.

"Lock it, and give me the key," ordered Lucrezia from the outside.

There was a rattle and a rusty creak as the key turned, then a chain clattered as the key was handed over.

"Here it is, Altezza Altezza." The man's voice was trembling.

"Good. Now, if I come back and catch you asleep at your post, I'll have you flogged. One hundred lashes. Understood?"

"Yes, Altezza Altezza."

Ezio listened to Lucrezia's footsteps as they grew fainter. He considered. The best way to reach the cell would be from above.

He climbed up until he came to another opening, giving on to a guard's walkway. This time, sentries were on duty, but it seemed that there were only two, patrolling together. He calculated it must take them five minutes to complete the circuit, so he waited until they had passed and then swung himself inside once again.

Crouching low, Ezio followed the guards at a distance until he came to a doorway in the wall from which a stone stairway led downward. He knew that he'd climbed into the Castel two floors above where Caterina's cell was located, and so, two flights down, he left the stairway and found himself in a corridor similar to the one in which he'd seen the encounter between Cesare and Lucrezia, only this time it was clad in stone, not wood. He doubled back in the direction of Caterina's cell, encountering no one, though passing a number of heavy doors, each with a grille, which suggested cells. As the wall curved following the line of the Castel, he heard voices ahead and recognized the Piedmontese accent of the guard who'd been talking to Lucrezia.

"This is no place for me," he was grumbling. "Did you hear the way she spoke to me? I wish I was back in fucking Torino."

Ezio edged forward. The guards were facing the door, as Caterina had appeared at the grille. She spotted Ezio behind them as he withdrew into the shadows.

"Oh, my poor back," she said to the guards. "Can you give me some water?"

There was a jug of water on the table near the door, where the two guards had been sitting earlier. One of them picked it up and brought it close to the grille.

"Anything else you require, Princess?" he asked sarcastically.

The guard from Turin sniggered.

"Come on, have a heart," said Caterina. "If you open the door, I might show you something worth your while."

The guards immediately became more formal. "No need for that, Contessa Contessa. We have our orders. Here."

The guard with the water jug unlatched the grille and passed the jug to Caterina through it. Then he closed the grille again.

"About time we were relieved, isn't it?" said the Piedmontese guard.

"Yes, Luigi and Stefano should have been here by now."

They looked at each other.

"Do you think that bitch Lucrezia will be back anytime soon?"

"Shouldn't think so."

"Then why don't we take a look down the guardroom-see what's keeping them?"

"All right. Only take us a couple of minutes anyway."

Ezio watched as they disappeared around the curve of the wall, and then he was at the grille.

"Ezio," breathed Caterina. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Visiting my tailor-what do you think?"

"For Christ's sake, Ezio, do you think we have time for jokes jokes?"

"I'm going to get you out. Tonight."

"If you do, Cesare will hunt you down like a dog."

"I think he's already trying to do that. But his men don't seem all that fanatical, to judge by these two. Do you know if the guards have another key?"

"I don't think so. The guards handed theirs to Lucrezia. She paid me a visit."

"I know. I saw."

"Then why didn't you do anything to stop her?"

"I was outside the window."

"Out there there? Are you mad?"

"Just athletic. Now-if Lucrezia has the only key we know of, I'd better go and get it. Do you know where she is?"

Caterina considered. "I heard her mention that her quarters are at the very top of the Castel."

"Excellent. That key is as good as mine! Now-stay here until I get back!"

Caterina gave him a look, and glanced at her chains, and at the cell door. "Why-where do you think I might might go?" she said with a dry smile. go?" she said with a dry smile.

TWENTY-FIVE.

He was getting used to the contours of the outer walls of the Castel Sant'Angelo by now and found that, the higher he climbed, the easier it was to find hand- and footholds. Clinging like a limpet, his cape billowing slightly in the breeze, he soon found himself on a level with the highest parapet and silently hauled himself up onto it.

The drop on the other side was slight-four feet to a narrow brick walkway, from which stairs led down, at occasional intervals, to a garden. A rooftop garden, in the center of which was a stone building, one story high, with a flat roof. It had broad windows, so the place was no extra fortification, and the light of many candles blazed within, disclosing opulent and tastefully decorated rooms.

The walkway was deserted, but the garden was not. On a bench under the spreading bows of a button-wood tree, Lucrezia sat demurely, holding hands with a handsome young man whom Ezio recognized as one of Rome's leading romantic actors-Pietro Benintendi. Cesare wouldn't be too pleased if he knew about this! Ezio, a mere silhouette, crept along the walkway to a point as close to the couple as he dared, grateful for the moon, which had risen by now and provided not only light but also confusing, camouflaging pools of shade. He listened.

"I love you so, I want to sing it to the heavens," Pietro was saying ardently.

Lucrezia shushed him. "Please! You must whisper it only to yourself. If Cesare found out, who knows what he would do."

"But you are free, are you not? Of course I heard about your late husband and I am very sorry, but-"

"Quiet, you fool!" Lucrezia's hazel eyes glittered. "Do you not know that Cesare had the Duke of Bisceglie murdered?-my husband was strangled."

"What?"

"It's true."

"What happened?"

"I loved my husband. Cesare grew jealous. Alfonso was a handsome man, and Cesare was conscious of the changes the New Disease had made to his own face, though God knows they are slight. He had his men waylay Alfonso and beat him up. He thought that would act as a warning. But Alfonso was no puppet. He hit back; while he was still recovering from Cesare's attack, he had his own men retaliate. Cesare was lucky to escape the fate of San Sebastiano! But then, cruel man!-he had Micheletto Corella go to his bedchamber, where he lay nursing his wounds, and strangle him there."

"It isn't possible." Pietro looked nervous.

"I loved my husband. Now, I make-believe to Cesare, to allay his suspicions. But he is a snake-always alert, always venomous." She looked into Pietro's eyes. "Thank God I have you to console me. Cesare has always been jealous of where I place my attentions; but that should not deter us. Besides, he has gone to Urbino to continue his campaigning. There is nothing to hinder us."

"Are you sure?"

"I will keep our secret-if you will," said Lucrezia intensely. She disengaged one hand from his and moved it to his thigh.

"Oh, Lucrezia!" sighed Pietro. "How your lips call to me!"

They kissed, delicately at first, then more and more passionately. Then Ezio shifted his position slightly and inadvertently kicked a brick loose, which fell into the garden. He froze.

Lucrezia and Pietro sprang apart.

"What was that?" she said. "No one is allowed access to my garden or my apartments without my knowledge-no one!"

Pietro was already on his feet, looking around fearfully. "I'd better go," he said hastily. "Look-I have to prepare for my rehearsal-scan my lines for the morning. I must go!" He stooped to give Lucrezia a last kiss. "Farewell, my love!"

"Stay, Pietro-I am sure it was nothing!"

"No-it is late. I must go!"

Putting on a melancholy expression, he slipped away across the garden and vanished through a door set into the wall on the far side.

Lucrezia waited a moment, then stood and snapped her fingers. Out of the shelter of some tall shrubs growing nearby, one of her personal guardsmen emerged and bowed.

"I heard the entire exchange, mia signora mia signora, and can vouch for it."

Lucrezia pursed her lips. "Good. Tell Cesare. We shall see how he feels when the boot is on the other foot."

"Yes, signora signora."

Bowing again, the guard withdrew.

Left alone, Lucrezia picked a marguerite from a clump of the flowers that were growing nearby and started to pluck its petals off, one by one.

"He loves me; he loves me not; he loves me; he loves me not..."

Ezio slipped down the nearest staircase and made his way toward her. She had sat down again and looked up at his approach, but showed no fear and only slight surprise. Well, if she had any more guards concealed in the garden, Ezio would give them short shrift.

"Please continue. I do not mean to interrupt," Ezio said, bowing in his turn, though in his case the bow was not made without irony.